Tapestry Community Association (TCA)
Meetings: The Tapestry Charter School Community Association (TCA) meets monthly at 6:30 p.m. For general meeting dates for 2012/13 please click here.
For recent meeting minutes please click here.
For 2012-13 TCA Events please click here.
To request more information, or to sign up for TCA updates via email, please contact tapestryca@gmail.com.
The TCA is a voluntary parent/family organization of Tapestry Charter School that was created to enhance and enrich the educational and social development of the students, faculty and families. It raises funds for the school (over $30,000 per year) and provides social events for the Tapestry community. The TCA meets monthly and hosts speakers on topics that are relevant for Tapestry families. All Tapestry parents/guardians, teachers, administrators and staff are members of the TCA.
TCA Fundraising: Charter schools receive a per-pupil allocation from the state. This per-pupil allocation varies from year to year, but in the City of Buffalo, in general, has been routinely equivalent to approximately 40% of the total per pupil expenditure of a Buffalo public school student. In order to make up for this funding discrepancy, charter schools must privately fundraise. The TCA works hard to prevent fund raising fatigue among families by planning just a few high earning (and community building) fundraisers each year.
Families will not be bombarded with a never-ending series of sales requests, but the Community Association does periodically hold fundraising activities that are an important source of funds for the school. Planet Tapestry is Tapestry’s annual auction. This event is TCA’s largest fundraiser and there are many volunteer opportunities for our families. See Planet Tapestry 2013.
The TCA's contribution of approximately $30,000 per year dramatically improves the quality of our program at Tapestry and is used to fund a variety of enrichment activities vital to our curriculum (field trips, classroom equipment, clubs, classroom initiatives such as poetry books and the yearbook, after school sports, etc.) All money raised by the TCA benefits the children at the school directly.
TCA Community-building: In addition to fundraising activities, the TCA holds other activities to draw its families and the broader community into the life of the school (end of summer picnic, the spaghetti dinner, the camping trip, and informational meetings).
TCA Coordination of Family Volunteers: The TCA Volunteer Coordinators organize the many parent/family volunteer opportunities such as greeting children as they arrive at school, calling other parents with important information and volunteering for various events. Family involvement is essential to the success of our school.
Sharing your time and talents is an incredibly rewarding way to help our children, our school and our community. Volunteering gives parents the feeling of ownership in our school and shared responsibility for the successful education of our children. Every parent can make time for some form of volunteering at the school. It could be during school hours or for special fund raising efforts, after school hours or on an occasional weekend, but no effort is too small, and every effort is appreciated. There are so many ways you can get involved.
